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1. I was in Barnes and Noble on Smithfield this morning to pick up the September issues of some of my favorite mags (You’re thinking Cosmopolitan aren’t you? Try Whirland Pittsburgh Magazine. I’m all about the Burgh, baby!), when I noticed that the Starbucks cafe there had a big sign indicating that PittGirl’s favorite Pumpkin Spice Latte was available again. I’m happy; I’m joyed; I’m sipping it now (decaf, skim, no whip) and could just full mouth kiss the next person that walks into my office. But I’m not going to do that, because with my luck the next person that walks into my office will be a pigeon. I bet they totally know how to work elevator buttons.

2. Mysteries of Pittsburgh filming is in full swing here downtown, as far as I can tell, mostly centered around the streets below Grant but above Liberty. Signs such as these are popping up:

Yesterday, huge trucks filled with cameras, lighting equipment, etc. were parked in front of the Regional Enterprise Tower. I tried, but could find no glimpse of Mena Suvari as I walked by in my effort to find her, worship her, then ask her if she knows David Conrad and has he ever mentioned PittGirl?

3. The Mayor is apparently on his deathbed, as his Chief of Making Shit Up seems to finally be telling the truth:

I can’t imagine what it must be like, but If I had to guess, I would say that waiting in a hospital room while your loved one slowly dies would include lots of moments of standing by the window looking down on the bustle of the street wondering why those people are allowed to go about living while you’re here waiting for dying. Sigh. I’ve met the Mayor on several occasions and compared to the times I have met Mayor Murphy, I can tell you that Mayor O’Connor ran a MUCH more relaxed and informal office. I appreciated that.

4. When/if the Mayor dies, will Mr. Skrinjar become Luke Ravenstahl’s Chief of Making Shit Up or does Luke get to find his own Chief of Making Shit Up? Assuming Luke accepts the role of Mayor that is.

9 Comments

This is so sad and fairly reminiscent of when my FIL died at East Suburban. Sucked.

I have my own evil thoughts though that our esteemed Mayor never WAS as good as they’d have you think (I mean did anyone ever SEE him making the rounds with his wife in the hospital?) Methinks in darkest moments that this was all a big, white haired dog being wagged and that they HAD to make you think he wasn’t fried…when in reality he always was just to get all the “dirty” work done in his name.

That makes me sad to think I am so cynical. But it seems pretty plausible to me. And what the heck…I AM cynical.

I doubt Luke would make any drastic changes either because the voters citywide really don’t know him. He only represents 1/9th of the city of Pittsburgh. Why would he make big changes that will only piss off the “O’Connor voting bloc” so soon? Luke needs O’Connors stable to get behind him so when he does run for Mayor he has a core group of people that are outside of his “inner circle”.

Look for a Peduto/Luke showdown in a few years, I’m sure Billy Peduto is creaming in his Dockers right now.

The city charter says: “A vacancy in the mayor’s office shall be filled at the next election permitted by law. The person elected … shall take office as soon as possible after the certification of election and shall serve the remaining portion of the vacated term.”

It must be in a municipal election year, according to state election law. The next two municipal election years are 2007 and 2009.

“[S]tate law [does] not permit a special election [for] the office of the mayor,” the charter says. So we wouldn’t pick a new mayor until the 2007 municipal elections, and the winner wouldn’t take office until 2008. For a year or more, we’d have a mayor only one-ninth of the city voted for. (And because the charter does allow special elections for council, they’d choose a new councilor much sooner than we’d get to pick our mayor.)

Don’t forget the city is under the control of two, count ’em, two oversight committies. The mayor whomever he/she may be is more than a little bit handcuffed
in doing anything of any real impact. Without the OK of at least some of the members, who , in reality control what does or does not happen re the city.